“Not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.”

-Elizabeth Goudge

Look who came to visit us in our tiny little garden!

As you can tell from the antennae, this is not a butterfly, but a moth. A Polyphemus moth, to be exact. He was huge and beautiful and FUZZY!

We see them in our yard from time to time, I think they live high up in our oak trees and rarely come down to play. The girls were thrilled and fascinated by their discovery. T even came back later with a magnifying glass to study this gorgeous creature a bit more closely.

This type of moth can’t eat once it reaches adulthood, so only lives for a week or so past it’s caterpillar stage. The ones we’ve seen always stay put for hours on end, so I suspect they’ve reached the end of their lives. Sad, but fantastic for the small ones who so rarely get a chance to see fluttering creatures close enough to get a good look.

Not everyone was as happy about our visitor as T and J were, however. . . Ro wasn’t sure quite what to make of it!